HPCL's Visakhapatnam Refinery Back to Normal Operation After Fire Incident

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Government of India-owned, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) (BSE: 500104) (New Delhi) 166,000-Barrels Per Day (BBL/d) Visakhapatnam Refinery in Andhra Pradesh is back on full throughput operation after a fire incident in the refinery. The 60,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation Unit III (CDU) in the refinery was taken to an emergency shutdown on May 16, 2013 after a fire triggered by a pump failure. CDU III and the associated unit 20,000 BBL/d Visbreaker was also taken on shutdown.

HPCL is presently implementing several projects to produce clean fuel and to improve profitability. The Diesel Hydrotreater (DHT) project being implemented at a cost of $100 million is expected to be operational by the end of third quarter of 2013. Along with DHT a Steam Methane Reforming Unit is also being developed to support the under-construction DHT Unit. With the commission of the DHT project, HPCL will be able to supply Euro-IV Compliant High Speed Diesel (HSD) on a regular basis. Meanwhile, plans are also afoot to ramp up the capacity of the refinery from 166,000 BBL/d to 300,000 BBL/d.

At present, Euro-IV Diesel is being supplied only to 13 metros. With the Commission of the DHT Euro-IV Diesel will be available in Visakhapatnam city, which at present is getting Euro-III Compliant diesel only. HPCL had already commissioned the Motor spirit units to meet the Euro-III and Euro-IV Specification fuels.

Visakhapatnam refinery is designed to process Arab Mix Crude. It will also have the flexibility to process other types of Middle East Crude, adopting the state-of-the-art technologies, which include major Units like three Crude Distillation Units, Vacuum Distillation unit, Visbreaker Unit, two Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) Units, Diesel Hydrotreater, Diesel Hydrodesulphurization Unit, Hydrogen Unit, Naphtha Hydrotreater, Continuous Catalytic Regeneration (CCR) Unit, Isomerization Unit and Sulfur Recovery Unit.

HPCL, currently, has a refining capacity of 296,000 BBL/d from its refineries based in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, with capacities of 130,000 BBL/d and 166,000 BBL/d respectively. HPCL is also planning to coming up with 180,000 BBL/d-Ratnagiri project the capacity would shot up to 476,000 BBL/d. The refinery is being set up in Maharashtra, is expected to cater to the increasing demand in refined petroleum products in the Western region of the country.

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